


apartment

by hongmunmu



Category: Naruto
Genre: Bad Parenting, Gen, Modern AU, Trans Character, Trans Orochimaru, idk what this is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-07-06
Packaged: 2018-07-21 22:13:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7407166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hongmunmu/pseuds/hongmunmu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She hadn't planned on seeing him again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	apartment

**Author's Note:**

> idk what this is but here. take it

There was one sharp knock at the door.

It was always one knock with him, Karin thought. He was so self-important that he thought one measly rap on the door was enough. Anyone could know it was him, because what kind of person only knocks once?

“Karin, let me in.”

A pause.

“It’s me.”

  
As if she didn’t _know that._

She let him in.

He was soaking wet, sodden in the rain, one hand over his stomach. His mascara had run down his pale face in ugly streaks and pooled under his eyes, making his normally smooth face appear aged like it should be.

“Thought you didn’t wear mascara,” she said pointedly, joking.

He didn’t say anything as he wiped his feet on the mat, shrugged off his coat and handed it to her. _Yes, your highness,_ she thought bitterly as she hung the dripping coat on the rack.

Karin shut the door quietly as she could and self-consciously glanced in the mirror, tidying her hair and adjusting her shorts as Orochimaru took his boots off beside her. He’d always insisted that his people should look tidy, and while she was no longer his, and had no intention of ever being so again, old habits die hard.

She turned, possibly to ask him why he was here, how he’d been, what had happened – the questions bubbled in her throat and she choked them back down. He turned his back to her, bent over the sink and wrung his damp hair out.

“Yes, make yourself at home,” she remarked.

“I can drip on your floor instead, if you wish,” he said calmly. Infuriating. Karin sighed and shuffled over to the kitchen cupboards, pulling out a half-empty bottle of vodka. It was going to be a long night.

“Drink?” she asked dully.

“As always.”

She poured the vodka between two glasses, and diluted hers with coke. She paused, looking over the drinks.

“Don’t spike it this time.”

She laughed in spite of herself, and as he left the bathroom she noticed his belly was swollen.

***

“Kimimaro’s dead,” he murmured, finally breaking the silence.

Karin paused, and took a long gulp of her drink, feeling the alcohol burn its way down her throat.

“You never bring any good fucking news,” she said.

“I know,” he said softly.

“Maybe you should start taking better care of your children.”

“I’m trying.” He paused. “This time.”

She looked at him, then at his swollen belly, then at the vodka in his hand.

“Are you really?”

He barked a short, abrupt laugh and lifted a hand, rubbing at his eyes, his shoulders shaking.

“No. Christ, I’m not.” He downed the vodka in one swift swallow, and crumpled into his hands.

_Jesus, he’s a mess._

She looked at him coldly.

“When were you going to tell me?”

“I wasn’t –”

“Not about the pregnancy, you self-absorbed shit. About Kimimaro.”

“Don’t talk to me like that, Karin.”

“I’ll talk to you however I fucking want. You’re in my house.”

He went quiet.

“He was sick. You know he was sick.”

“He was sick because of _you_.”

Orochimaru said nothing, continuing to hide his face.

“And this one will be too if you don’t get a hold of yourself.”

He was nothing like the commanding, authoritative figure she’d once known. It seemed like he knew it, too. He certainly hadn’t come here for respect.

There was once a time where had she spoken to him like she was now she would’ve earned herself a hard scolding, extra chores and probably a slap from Kabuto once Orochimaru’s back was turned.

Things weren’t like that now.

“I’m going for a smoke,” she said. “You can come or not. It’s your baby.”

He came.

***

Orochimaru smoked at twice the speed of Karin, chaining through most of her pack. Growing up there was never a moment he hadn’t stank of smoke.

“What happened to you?”

“Sasuke.”

“And? I thought you were doing fine after Oto broke up. You said you had a place.”

“I lied.” His voice broke.

Karin snorted. “You’re a good liar then.” She paused to take a drag.

“You already knew that.”

She smirked and nodded. “Everyone else thought you’d done better than the rest of us. Like you always did.”

“I was arrested.”

Karin practically spat out the cigarette.

“You _what-”_

Orochimaru smiled sadly. Karin looked him over, trying to digest this.

“You mean – for the last five years, you’ve been in – ”

“Yes.”

There was a silence punctuated only by exhales of smoke.  Eventually Karin spoke.

“I thought you’d abandoned us. Everyone did.”

“Sasuke sold me out. He’d been threatening to for some time. I thought he wouldn’t, as long as you and the others were in my custody, but it seems I was wrong.”

“And the baby?”

“Jiraiya.”

Karin snorted. “That’s been a long time coming, then.”

“I had a way out of prison. I took it.” He paused, picking clumps of mascara off his eyelashes. “They didn’t get me for everything. Only drugs. Sasuke had that much mercy, at least.”

She laughed. “Not vile mass murder, then.”

“Thankfully, no.”

“Shocker,” Karin remarked. “Actions have consequences.”

“You took part, if I remember correctly, young woman.”

“It was a long time ago.”

“That it was.”

More silence.

“So why’d you come here? Surely there were more options.”

“Kabuto’s moved on.”

That he had. After Orochimaru had disappeared Kabuto had all but followed him. Guren liked to joke that he’d killed himself, others said they’d disappeared together. Either Kabuto had known Orochimaru was arrested and, having realised he’d be next, ran away – or, acknowledging that without Orochimaru there was no Otogakure, he’d gone to find another life. Either way, he was out of the picture now.

Karin wasn’t terribly shaken. She’d never liked the man.

She sighed, standing up, and stretched the cracks out of her shoulders.

“How long are you staying?”

“As long as you’ll have me, until I can find something else.”

She sighed. “Fine.”


End file.
